Specifically, speaking today, Thursday, November 9, 2023, at Plenary of the Parliament, the Minister of Environment and Energy stated that:
“One of the problems that exist in the electricity market is the inability of consumers to have a clear picture of who the cheapest supplier”, as the consumer is required to analyze all suppliers’ invoices.
As the responsible minister explains:
“From 1the.1.2024 there will be a transition of all consumers to the new tariffs.
“And given that a very large number of consumers are sure not to actively choose a tariff – I remind you that there are more than 1 million benefits, in which consumers have not chosen a tariff at PPC and historically remain on a tariff, without dealing which tariff they will go to- and a huge number of people will find themselves without an express contract, we had two options:
»One option was to accept that the suppliers will choose the tariff on behalf of the consumers. That is, those who will not actively make the decision, who will not make a statement, would go to the invoice closest to what they had, which the suppliers would choose.
»However, suppliers have the right to offer whatever invoice they want. And which one would be the closest to each consumer, would be the supplier’s decision. There, however well-intentioned the suppliers may be, there is an inherent conflict of interest that we felt we should avoid.
“Given that from 1.1.2024 for those who do not actively choose a tariff, there is no full contract, that is, we would not have two parties that would agree, we would have one party that would agree (supplier’s note). That is why we introduced a new ex ante invoice, i.e. with a variable price, but known in advance (this does not apply to fixed invoices), which has the following characteristics:
»It has a correction system to reduce, as much as possible, its difference from the ex post invoice and to reduce the compensation costs paid by suppliers.
»I note here that if you have an invoice with an adjustment clause, at the end of the day it is cheaper than an invoice where the supplier tells you the price and then pays compensation if he made a mistake (in the long run, in the short term it may this is not the case).
»So, we tried to make a tariff as close as possible to the cheapest, but in which the consumer knows from the beginning what the price will be next month. And this invoice should have the feature that consumers will now be able, by opening the relevant page of the FSA, to compare the prices – in every bill and in every message that consumers will receive, there will be a link that will take them to the comparison of prices. They will see who is the cheapest last month, the month before, the month before, etc. And so, they will form a picture of who is the cheapest in the market.
“This does not mean that they cannot leave this tariff. They can leave at any time. This does not mean that they cannot change supplier. They can change supplier at any time. It does mean, however, that companies will be forced, on this particular tariff, to compete on prices, with consumers knowing the prices. And price competition will only be good for the consumer.”
